Cleansing by Fire
by shadeshark
Summary: If Integra chose to go with Alucard, there would only be two to pick up the pieces. . . Rating changed for a darkening world.
1. Ashes of Dreams

Happy Disclaimer:  
  
The Hellsingverse, including Anderson, Walter, and varied bit characters, does not belong to me.  
  
This is dedicated to Red Anne Bonney, because I bothered the daylights out of her.  
  
+++++++  
  
I walked the castle freely. It almost amused me, the fact that I was walking through my worst enemy's domain. Now if only I knew where to find him, my happiness would be complete.  
  
I knew I wasn't going to find anyone, knew the house would only be full of ghosts and memories and taint. I knew that every member of the house had fled in the wake of Integra's rash decision. I'd heard of it-light snaking through the windows, red gleams shattering the air at midnight, laughter and eyes. I knew that nobody would have stayed after that.  
  
That shows what I know.  
  
He was crouched on a chair, his back bowed, his eyes closed, the picture of exhaustion. I remembered his name only by description.  
  
"Walter?" I tried. I sensed a soul completely devoted to duty, or I would have killed him as another impure member of this corrupted house. I was there to purify.  
  
His eyes opened, and he looked up at me dully. He didn't even seem to care that I was there. Most people do, for one reason or another. Then he looked down at the floor again. "You have no business here, Father Anderson. Integra's home remains in my care."  
  
I crouched. "She's gone, man. She's abandoned her duty." What was I supposed to do with him? I didn't think, from what I'd heard of him, he'd be an easy man to toss over my shoulder and remove from the grounds.  
  
"My little Integra. . ." His voice carried pain I'd heard once before and I never wanted to hear again.  
  
"I know," I said simply. "She's not Sir Integra any more." I didn't dare touch him. "My duty is to cleanse this place before she decides to stay."  
  
He looked up at me. "What was she thinking? She can't fight them like Alucard, even by his side. She's lost Hellsing. Last night she said she never would, and now she has. Her funding's gone. Her assets were already frozen and will be handed to her next of kin. What was she thinking?"  
  
I stood again, frowning. I'd seen this coming all along. I knew it would happen like I knew sunrises and sunsets will happen. Harbor vampires, live with them, command them, and soon enough you join them. I killed her men like I would ghouls, sparing them from her eventual predation; I attacked anyone foolish enough to aid her pet; but I didn't do enough.  
  
I hadn't attacked her, partly because I hoped her devotion to duty would carry her through, partly in hopes that she'd come to her senses, partly in sincere respect. All right, all right, and so I wouldn't free that hideous abomination of hers. But I should have killed her. Better one freed vampire than two let loose on the world.  
  
I failed. I failed as much as she did.  
  
"It's being around them," I said. "Never live around them. They corrupt your very soul." I reached down to help him up. "They can only be destroyed, even the most innocent-seeming ones."  
  
He watched me, his eyes narrowed. "I fought alongside him for years."  
  
"That's probably why you didn't kill him for Sir Integra," I hazarded. He lost eye contact with me. I didn't repeat my observation. He was close enough to breaking, and I know the meaning of mercy.  
  
"What are you here for, priest?" It was like he'd never heard me earlier. "He took them both down through the floor and ripped it apart in his wake. There's tons of earth between us and them. We'll never reach them today."  
  
"I knew we wouldn't get them so quickly. I'm here for the castle. This place has to burn," I answered. "If it doesn't, she'll make it her territory, command every part of it, and we won't even be able to reach her during the day."  
  
He covered his face. I turned away. I didn't think he would attack me, even though I was here to destroy what had been his home for decades.  
  
I still jerked back around when I heard the chair grating over the floor. He was only standing. "Is he still with her?" he asked sharply.  
  
I shrugged. "I'm afraid I can't tell." I can sense vampires, but not these two. Not on their own turf when they know I'm coming. "I think so, or else I'd pick up something."  
  
Walter moved. He went stiffly to a long cabinet and pulled out a plastic jug of kerosene. He handed one to me, reserved one for himself. While I waited, he called the fire department, gave them his name and the street address, and told them we were burning rubbish and there would be some smoke. I blinked at him. He shrugged back.  
  
We went through the lower floor with kerosene. When we ran out, we took spare containers of gasoline from the garage. We broke up chairs and piled them, scattered open books, and ripped and scattered curtains to trap heat. We opened some doors and some windows to form vents to feed our eventual fire. We carried combustibles downstairs and stacked them in the basement.  
  
I watched him carefully, trying to judge his thoughts without intruding.  
  
"We need more gasoline to ignite the stairway," he said finally. "Perhaps you would be good enough to siphon some. I tire."  
  
I took the containers, went down to the front door, and opened and shut it. I remained inside.  
  
I heard the sound of the room going up-an awesome gush of flame. I charged back down the hall. He was easy to see among the gasoline-fed flames, swaying slightly in the black smoke that began to fill the room. I grabbed his arm and dragged him to the front door. We fell out as the flames raced over the accelerant-soaked carpet. We both leaned against the house for a moment, coughing and glaring at each other.  
  
"It's about to get very hot right here," I said, for lack of anything better to say, and moved away from the house.  
  
Walter followed me, mostly because I was still hanging onto his arm. "My place is with the Hellsings, living or dead. If I die now, I will not ever be with Int-" he stared straight ahead, gathered himself, and finished, "I will never join Alucard."  
  
I coughed again, feeling like my lungs were about to part company with my chest. "You might. Suicides can become vampires."  
  
He scoffed at me. "After being burned to ash? I was careful when I thought it through." He turned away. "But now what to do?"  
  
"Kill Alucard," I said. It was the most obvious thing for me to think of.  
  
He turned to me, and for the first time he didn't look pained and old. "I think that an admirable idea." He paused. "I am a weaponsmith devoted to killing vampires, but I cannot think of something powerful enough to finish him."  
  
"I'm still not sure how to destroy him," I admitted. "Especially with the seals gone. But I've been reading through some manuscripts. There are some most interesting references. . ."  
  
He turned away from the house with me, listening carefully. It was now burning strongly. The fire department could disregard Walter's warning now, and still not get here in time. That infernal pair was undoubtedly out of the reach of fire, but Integra's sanctuary was gone.  
  
We would be back, the pair of us.  
  
Talking of the nails of the Cross and the bit of Pegasus, we walked from the blazing haven. 


	2. Phoenix Planning

Hellsing isn't mine, although it's lovely territory to take a head trip in.  
  
For example: what if Anderson had been absolutely right?  
  
The world is insane anyway. Everything gets simpler when seen from Anderson's perspective.  
  
+++++++  
  
My new ally sat by me in the passenger's seat, idly watching his hands as he shifted them this way and that. I was driving, and didn't have time to see what he was doing.  
  
"What do you think they'll do first?" he asked.  
  
"I'm not sure," I said honestly. "She'll be furious. What does she do when she's angry?"  
  
"She'll want to know who did that, first," Walter said thoughtfully. "If she checks with the fire department, she'll learn that I called in and delayed them."  
  
"So she'll be after you?"  
  
"Yes, to find out why. Alucard will probably escort her. He's going to be very protective of his-" Walter fell silent.  
  
"What about the little blonde girl?" I asked. I hadn't seen a trace of her.  
  
"Miss Victoria's been gone for a few weeks now," Walter said, head turned to the window. "She'd probably foreseen Sir Integra's decision. She's made things a little less complicated by her scarcity."  
  
"That's true." Three true vampires at once isn't a challenge; it's suicide. Not even I would charge into those odds. "How can we split them?"  
  
Walter frowned. "Trapping Integra will be easier than trapping Alucard-but not for long. She's a fast learner. Binding her would be asking for trouble. We'd have to put her someplace she couldn't get out of."  
  
My mind ticked through a list of possible trap locations. "Underwater. Is she vulnerable to running water?"  
  
Walter nodded slowly.  
  
"Right. You snare her, I push her into a locker, we shove her into the Thames. Alucard comes after us to find out where she is, and then the fun really begins." I grinned.  
  
"Father Anderson-" Walter hesitated, staring between his hands. "I was wondering about this earlier, in the house. I can fight Alucard. I do not think that I can kill her."  
  
I drew one sword and replaced it while turning the car. "I can." I was furious with myself. If I hadn't let the vampire live, Walter would never have spent so much time in proximity to one. Then Sir Integra's transformation would not affect him to the point that he couldn't free her.  
  
"Good." Walter said no more for a few blocks. "Where are we going?"  
  
"I had to have my weapons shipped by sea." I turned again. "We're going to the warehouse they arrived at, I'm loading them into the back of the car, and we're going to the church that's kindly offered me shelter." I glanced at him again. "How long ago did you eat?"  
  
"Sometime yesterday. It's not important right now."  
  
"I need you at your best," I argued gently. He made no response. I decided to push it when there was food available. It was a moot point when we were sitting in the car.  
  
The rest of the drive was made in silence. I picked up my weapons, opening the crates in the trunk to check their labels against the contents. Everything seemed to be in place. I drove to the church and went to my back room, which was usually reserved for visiting missionaries. Walter watched in silence as I began prepping my equipment.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"The pistol is armed with holy water darts. Meant to be fired at the eyes." I put that little toy in one corner of my worktable. I don't care much for small weapons; I was after big game, not my usual chipped responsibilities.  
  
"What's your business here?" Walter inquired.  
  
"I was supposed to confirm Sir Integra's fate and attack the vampire she freed. At the least, I want him too weak to take any ocean voyages."  
  
"What are those drums for?"  
  
"Containing any part of his essence I manage to remove." Blood, limbs, organs, whatever-if he couldn't get to it, he'd be that much weaker. I intended to split his ashes among them if I ever got him to that state. Better safe than dead.  
  
He leaned forward with genuine curiosity when he saw the rocket launcher frame I was assembling. "Effective?"  
  
I smirked. "So far, yes." I slid the casing shut over the armed launcher, flicked the safety into place, and set it on the floor. "Where will Sir Integra look for you first?"  
  
"We have some safehouses for our men near the outskirts of London. She'll check those."  
  
I nodded. "Is one near a river?"  
  
"Yes. . . a sort of stream. Deep enough for our purposes."  
  
"Pick it and draw me an overhead view of its surroundings. We'll have to think of a plan on our way over if we want it prepped for an ambush. There's paper and pencils in that desk drawer." I opened another crate and lifted out the first weapon. A modified harpoon blade, it still had a jagged edge, meant for catching flesh.  
  
"What's that?" Walter sounded shocked.  
  
"A blessed blade from the Caribbean. There was a creature called a Devilfish they blamed for all sorts of trouble. Simply a harmless ray, but they made a ridiculously overpowered blade to deal with it." I put it at one end of the table.  
  
"And that?" Walter cocked an eyebrow at it, glancing up from his sketching.  
  
"A reforged Roman blade. The original was carried by one of the disciples." I laid it reverently by the first. "It feels to me as though the story were true. It's definitely a holy weapon. It was a bit corroded by the time we found it, so we melted it and recast it with sacred steel. It has its original power." I smiled.  
  
"And that?" He raised an eyebrow at the crossbow.  
  
"Wood from a reliquary that was desecrated by vandals." I stroked it gently. "The stake is compounded from several different sources."  
  
"And that?"  
  
"Axe of a Norman Saint who was a dedicated vampire killer." I stashed it with the rest of my blades, removed the bolt, and hung the crossbow over my back. "Let's get started. We have a battlefield to prepare." 


	3. Phoenix Burning

++++++  
  
Hellsing still isn't mine, but it was very optimistic of you to check this disclaimer.  
  
Uhh, this is chapter 3, right? Yes it is. Good. ++++++  
  
I found myself repeating the same prayer, over and over and over again. Walter was in position, unmoving. We had gone over the grounds together, step by step, as we laid out our plans.  
  
The safehouse was a bust. Not that it wasn't, well, safe, but it wasn't elder vampire-proof. It was a dome of masonry set in the earth, an upper room with small windows, a lower room full of medical supplies and food. No back door. When dealing with Alucard, we wanted no dead ends. We both knew we needed room to dance in.  
  
I had made another trip back to a warehouse where I stored some of my ghoul- killing gear. Setting it in place had burned up our remaining daylight hours, and both of us felt no safer. If we rigged the ground well, our adversary would come at us from the sky.  
  
Our only chance was to hit him and not let up until he was dead.  
  
"Hallowed be Thy name," I found myself chanting again.  
  
The weapons were a small part of my unease. I craft and bless my own blades, and here I was with completely foreign weapons. I'd handed the crossbow over t to Walter, wearing a shield over my shoulder instead. I deliberately wrapped my fingers around the cork handle of the harpoon.  
  
That was all it took. I've been fighting for years and years. Put a blessed blade in my hand and the promise of an enemy, and I'm in bloodlust. I forgot everything except my duty and my plan and the fact that there was a vampire for me to kill. I was almost surprised when I saw Walter.  
  
The phone rang.  
  
Walter picked it up, said, "Yes, Sir Integra," and hung up again.  
  
No, Lady Integra now, I thought, she's been demoted to being her pet's pet. Walter went by me in unhurried strides, picking his way across the slopes to stand in the trees by the road.  
  
Bless them, I thought with a grin when I saw them coming. I barked, "by road!" so Walter would be prepared.  
  
And prepared he was.  
  
He knew their fighting styles and strategy like nobody else. He knew that if Integra were to wish to travel by car, both would refuse to be the passenger. He knew that Integra would win the argument and Alucard would travel outside to watch over her.  
  
All Walter had to do was force the car to stop.  
  
Honestly, I'd expected him to have done something complicated with metal floss. No. He just stepped out in front of the car.  
  
The car braked powerfully, but I had no time to pay attention. I had Alucard. He was flying, a small, flitting shape. My first blade ripped one wing from his bat's body. He plummeted downward, growing.  
  
I knew there would be hellhounds after that first definite strike. I saw Walter at the riverbank, his back to us, before Alucard hit the earth in a snaking ball of tendrils and fangs. I had already scooped up and levelled the rocket launcher.  
  
The first howl from the hellhound's throat wilted the grass around it. The second was worse, because it had just had an explosive round sent into its side. I hadn't expected the power of the blast; I ducked into the wind, a hand up to protect my face. I dropped the rocket launcher to dodge, because tooth-edged tentacles were coming my way. I was too far to run in and finish it. Alucard didn't bother to re-summon his pet.  
  
I dodged along the pattern I'd memorized. Behind me, snapping sounds went off. Alucard gave a pain-filled laugh as the silver-alloy traps we'd planted in the ground snapped shut. I turned, flinging the Sword of the Disciple (if I'd known which disciple, the prayer I'd thrown it with would have been a lot more efficient) and following it up with as many of my own blades as I could reach. He kept up with me, despite the silver cluttering his legs. He wanted to play.  
  
The Disciple's sword seemed to have the most effect. Alucard laughed again and melted into the ground. I heard traps go off around me as he snaked through the grass and triggered them from below. He surged up from the earth about two steps from me, injury-free and seeking a fight.  
  
Then he jerked and swung around, reaching up to his chest. Walter was already cranking a second bolt-this one weaker, but still launched by the blessed weapon. I thanked Heaven for my ally as I grabbed the harpoon and swept the blade through the vampire's neck. I caught his head and sprinted over the ground, trying to ignore the way his hair was writhing around my wrist. I jammed it into one of the containers, slammed the lid on, and slung it into the safehouse. This wasn't, of course, over yet. As I ran back, I briefly pondered the nature of a beast that would use its whole body to think instead of its brain alone.  
  
Damnable vampire.  
  
I heard the repeated crack of a gun, and I fell, almost catching myself in one of the traps that Alucard had missed. I picked it up and threw it. By luck alone, I fouled his aim as he levelled his gun. An eye was watching me from his shoulder, directing his aim. He idly grew his head back as he untangled gun and trap. "You were expecting an easy fight, Judas Priest?"  
  
Then who had shot me? I saw Walter aim and fire his second crossbow bolt, then discard the weapon. His wires came out again and he sprinted at Sir Integra, who was reloading. I cursed. The first of our plans hadn't contained her.  
  
Well, hopefully Walter would keep more of her bullets from coming my way. Alucard had his gun out now. I flipped my shield off my back and charged him.  
  
It was a new tactic for me. He smoked aside in a flurry of mist and tentacles. I had the axe in my other hand, and I struck at the area around the gun. The gun went off at roughly the same time. The bullet ricocheted from the shield edge and tore my scalp. I threw the shield at the center of the coalescing vampire, scooped up the gun, threw it in the river, and had at him again with the axe. He formed twice, but each time I caught him in the center of the head. He retreated.  
  
I heard laughter as we crossed the first boundary. I was pushing him back across my laid-out lines. Since we were in open air, Walter and I had drawn up a giant holy symbol in the ground. Alucard shifted back to his usual self without the slightest sign of discomfort.  
  
Almost his usual self. His hands were gloveless. His expression was jubilant.  
  
"What to do?" He ducked the axe, hands crooked into claws. "Integra has joined me; should I celebrate with the destruction of an enemy? Or should I let you run free to challenge me again?"  
  
I missed the seals.  
  
Something hit me in the side of the head. My glasses frame buckled. I knocked them away from my face, handling the axe one-handed as I drew a short sword to help me parry. I glanced down. I identified my assailant as a common ground rock. Oh no. Telekinesis was coming my way. I handled it with my catch-all cure for vampiric ailments: I charged.  
  
The blessed silver boomerang from the Catholic mission to Australia curved gracefully through the air and lodged in Alucard's back. Unless Integra was playing tag, Walter had gotten to my car and picked up another few weapons. Alucard pulled it free, shaking the flames off his hand like water, and dropped it on the ground. He looked at me quizzically, dancing aside from the axe. "What are you going to do next? Strangle me with Mother Theresa's holy necklace of discarded pop tabs?"  
  
Everything we had wasn't damaging him. This was just getting ludicrous. I motioned for Walter to retreat. There was no reason both of us should die. Walter, naturally, acted like he hadn't seen me. I gritted my teeth and charged in again.  
  
That time I pushed him to the center of my carefully laid-out symbol, and his telekinesis was closed to him. Walter tagged him from behind with the flamethrower. Alucard thrashed around to find out where this new attack was coming from; Walter almost set me ablaze; and Alucard levelled a punch at the old man.  
  
I brought the axe around in an overhead swing, trying to cut his arm off before he hit his target. Integra stepped in between Alucard and Walter. She was dripping wet, her hair plastered to her and her skin burned red, but she radiated control. "Enough."  
  
Walter looked at me, his face blank, agony in his eyes. He had wires between his hands and no will to use them. I threw the axe. It whipped through the air, aimed straight for her heart.  
  
Alucard spun, snatching it out of the air. Tossing it aside (ablaze once more,) he used the force of his spin to send his fist into the center of my chest.  
  
I heard several bones snapping at once; I blacked out before I hit the ground. 


	4. A Common Insanity

++++++  
  
Hellsing isn't mine.  
  
This completes my rebuttal to those sappy "and they all lived happily ever after" Integra and Alucard pairings. They're mix-and-match Armageddon, for crying out loud!  
  
Chapter 4. Writing is fun.  
  
++++++  
  
I snapped out of it shortly afterwards. I was cold, chilled to the bone. Icy sweat covered my skin. We'd travelled, I knew, probably through the undead creature's portal. The smell of smoke and burning told me where we were.  
  
"Have you ever wished you weren't a regenerator?" Alucard asked.  
  
I turned. "Where's Walter?"  
  
"Integra's with him at the car. She's trying to calm him before he suffers a heart attack."  
  
I was unrestrained and I still had three swords left under my trenchcoat.  
  
I had never felt so helpless.  
  
Hellsing still burned around me. The firemen hadn't been able to get to this part of the blaze, I supposed. We were surrounded by white ash and heat. I saw no flames, but the walls around us glowed. I welcomed it after my frigid teleportation. I glanced at the hallway. Air was sucked through the window behind me into the hall, which explained why I wasn't poisoned by smoke and gases.  
  
"Answer me."  
  
What had he asked me? Ah. "No."  
  
"You've never been at the risk of being beaten down over and over to dispel someone's boredom? Never had to fear that your blood would go to satisfy the thirst of two vampires, and you'd still be alive at the end of it?"  
  
Hmm. . . good questions. I thought for about two seconds. "No."  
  
"You've never fully realized how hard it will be for you to take your own life, that option finally preferable to the latest abuse you're asked to live through?"  
  
"No."  
  
"So this is the first time you've been beaten this badly? With your prayers failing you and your weapons doing no good?"  
  
"Just shut up!" We should have gone after Integra first. I ignored the voice in the back of my head that explained I just would have gone down faster.  
  
Alucard moved, grabbing my shoulder and throwing me against the whitened walls. I heard the skin on the back of my neck smoulder. My hair went up in flame. I twisted off the shelf, smothering the fire with my coat.  
  
"Judas priest, what do you do when you're not killing vampires?" His voice held something in it, but I couldn't tell what. Pain? No. Confusion? Possibly.  
  
"Take care of orphans." I started to get up. Alucard's weight crashed down on me, pinning me down while he removed my weapons and threw them into the fire. He got up again, dragging me to my feet. There was something odd about him.  
  
Desperation?  
  
Maybe. Just maybe. But why?  
  
"I'm free," he said, tightening his grip on my coat. There was insanity somewhere deep in his eyes. I went still. "There is nothing blocking me from my power. Nothing. The only challenge that presents itself right now is how badly I can make you wish you were dead." I hit the coals again, although this time I managed to get my sleeve between my head and the worst of the heat. His boot came down hard on my neck; I heard things crack. A few minutes later, when I was in shape to comprehend his words, he was saying, "I have my power, I have my master, and every enemy I have found has died. It's done. It's all done. There's nothing left for me to do." I saw his feet move away.  
  
There was devoting his unlife to good deeds, I thought, and then I got a grip.  
  
"There's rebuilding to do," Integra's voice broke in. As always, she brought a welcome touch of sanity with her. I picked out her outline now that I knew she was there. She was watching me. "There's you and me. And Walter, if I can convince him. And Victoria, wherever she went."  
  
"She'll be back. She's giving you privacy to grow into your new place." Alucard seemed to have forgotten me.  
  
"There's finding out if we love each other," Integra continued, "because you never admitted one way or another, and neither did I." A cool little smirk, one I was so familiar with, appeared on her features as Alucard formed a protest. "There's a Judas of the Round Table to discover." That word brought their attention back to me. "And him." Integra smiled at me. "And I want Maxwell dead."  
  
"Him?" Alucard looked at her inquiringly. It was hard to believe he was the same creature that had been speaking so emptily a moment before.  
  
"He's Maxwell's champion, the dog of the Iscariots. I'd like to take him from them."  
  
Alucard reached down and gripped my skull in one hand. "Say it."  
  
"No. I mean," she gently removed his fingers from my skull, hauled me to my feet, and shoved me towards the door. "I'd like you to bring him with us, eventually."  
  
"Why him?" Alucard asked, in tones of deep disgust.  
  
"Because it's impossible," Integra said, as I started a strategic retreat, "and I'd like to see you do the impossible for a very long time yet."  
  
Neither of them followed me as I escaped what Hellsing used to be. I thought that the smoke and ash were getting to me, and then realized I was crying.  
  
First, for the soul of Integra.  
  
And because I am only human, I cried because I'd failed, and with that failure I'd loosed the worst monster I could imagine.  
  
I heard movement behind me and spun, grief forgotten, hands coming up in a futile defense. It was only Walter. I slowed to let him come closer, suppressing my grief. He looked haggard, exhausted.  
  
"Your car's in the drive," he said. "Integra was so kind as to leave the keys with me."  
  
"I'm so sorry, Walter."  
  
Walter looked past me at the house. "I have seen Hellsing to its end. I have done my duty."  
  
Great. The last thing I needed was him giving up the ghost on me. "You're still needed."  
  
"I know that." He let me shepherd him back to the car (there's nothing like the threat of vampires to keep a mortal moving.) "I know how she thinks. I know how he'll react."  
  
"You'll like Rome," I said thoughtfully.  
  
"The good thing about this," he said as I began driving, "the really good thing is, they're content with each other. They won't be sowing armies of vampires trying to find a decent one to talk to."  
  
"I'll resist if you do," I promised.  
  
"I will," he said simply. "I've been all my life at Hellsing."  
  
My thoughts turned back to our battle. Did Alucard get his head out of the sacred container? What weapons seemed to have hurt him the worst? How could we stack the odds against him? We'd have to revisit the scene of the fight. I hoped we could be there and gone before he decided to attack us.  
  
I felt very weak, and very ineffective and mortal, after that battle.  
  
And there was more to come. 


	5. Another Phoenix Plan Hatches

++++++  
  
Nope, Hellsing still isn't mine. Thanks for checking back.  
  
Thanks for the reviews; they give wings to my typing fingers. Or some metaphor that would make sense if I'd slept more than four hours. Durn meds.  
  
Chapter 5, and I'm beginning to see the end of this beast peeking over the horizon at me. Fetch me my dartgun, squire.  
  
++++++  
  
Walter and I saw the series of images flash onto the computer.  
  
A satellite feed is a wonderful thing. We watched the fight unfold, frame by frame. Alucard and Integra were getting down to housecleaning, wiping out every nest of supernatural activity they could find on their home ground. Walter and I both knew they'd leave London soon.  
  
"No ghouls," I commented. "Is that a good sign?"  
  
"Typical, I'm afraid," he said. "Integra thinks they're fairly useless. Alucard scorns them."  
  
It had only been two weeks since Walter and I had left England, but I now thought of him as a friend. A somewhat uncomfortable friend, but a trusted ally nonetheless.  
  
It was amazing how many people had already quietly realized what was in store for Section XIII. The Pope had moved at least half of our soldiers to the other organizations, figuring that he only had so many he could afford to sacrifice. Maxwell had only heard halfway through my report before he had begun calling the Vatican library for books and translations. Heinkel and Yumiko had been sent afield-no sense in letting two useful agents throw away their lives.  
  
I had refused my posting, pointing out that Alucard and Integra both held something personal against me. Walter and I agreed that they'd likely attack us before they went after Maxwell. He wouldn't listen to us.  
  
Walter and I had become skilled at making our own plans. Every day that went by, we added to them.  
  
I still don't know what might have happened had Seras not elected to reappear.  
  
And naturally, she chose Walter to come confide in.  
  
I sensed her on my way back from picking up some metal that the Pope had seen fit to bless for us. I found her and Walter speaking with each other in the garage. Walter took one look at me and stepped in between us.  
  
"Have you forgotten what happened after you consorted with that last vampire?" I asked him gently, holding two swords at the ready.  
  
"I'm not like that!" Seras snapped.  
  
"You will be in a year, or five, or ten," I said wearily. "You have to know what happened to Integra's resolve."  
  
She wilted a little. "I'm sorry. They're angry with you." She appealed to Walter. "I had to leave."  
  
"Do you know when they'll be coming?" A hint of their timing would be invaluable.  
  
"Look, if you're going to treat her as an ally, put away those silly swords before you cut someone," Walter snapped at me.  
  
"Oh, they've left England." She perked up a bit as I sheathed my blades. "They're going to go slow, crossing in foreign countries. Integra's still learning."  
  
Walter and I both winced. We'd had no success with trapping her last time. She'd be an even harder opponent this time around.  
  
"You need an angel for this, not a paladin who's forced to put up with being around a vampire," I said, leaning heavily on a nearby car. "It's too bad that the largest group of knights I can think of is--" I paused, tasting my words, thinking.  
  
"What?" Walter saw my expression.  
  
"Maybe we're going about this the wrong way," I said thoughtfully, looking at Seras, then at Walter. "Or maybe being around this creature has already corrupted my thinking. But I have an idea."  
  
Nobody liked my idea. Seras thought it was icky, Maxwell thought it was sheer heresy, and Walter thought it was lunacy.  
  
"Explain once more," said Walter. "There's something here I'm missing."  
  
Seras was sitting out this meeting. We didn't want to push Maxwell over the edge, so we hadn't mentioned her to him. Maxwell generously took over the explaining for me. Showoff.  
  
"The Knights Templar were a small band of, well, knights that acted badly in the Crusades. They had no faith and no self-control. They were as bad as the Moors claimed that all Christians were. They were cursed, some say by Allah and some say by our true God, to undeath. They were forced to ride the land seeking virgins to consume." Maxwell frowned at me. "Obviously it was demonic retribution brought about by the tribes the Knights Templar set upon, since our God would never foster-"  
  
"The point is," I cut across Maxwell's lecture, "the Knights are still in existence. The Church couldn't kill them, so we sealed them in a tomb and built a sanctuary on top of them. The church still stands, but the towns around it have dried up. I suggest we go sic the Knights Templar on Seras Victoria. Integra and Alucard will be forced to help defend her. We wait until they've cut apart the pack of Templars, and then we attack them with our weapons."  
  
"There are several problems with your plan," Maxwell said drily. "The most glaring is that you also happen to be a virgin, and are more alive than Seras. I think the Knights will ignore her and come straight after you."  
  
"In which case we still have a fighting chance, because Integra wants me alive." I tried not to think of facing a pack of knights that the Church at its high point had been unable to defeat. "What I like most about my plan is that we'll be far away from population centers. The idea of Alucard discovering the orphanage has given me nightmares."  
  
That was a selling point. Maxwell leaned back in his chair, rubbing his gold cross thoughtfully against his chin. Walter began to look as though he might be taking me seriously. Maxwell came up with another flaw.  
  
"And how are you going to 'sic the Knights Templar on Seras Victoria?' I was not aware that she was going to wander along to a remote Spanish church to be attacked by long-dead warriors."  
  
For starters, I thought, she's hiding in your garage. What I said was, "she's avoided Integra ever since the Protestant weakling took her place. Walter knows how to contact her. If Walter were to call her, she would come straight to him."  
  
"Interesting," Maxwell conceded. "You realize that you'd have to time the release of the Knights Templar well. That might be difficult with three vampires coming down on you."  
  
"Honestly, no harder than defending you against Integra and Alucard," Walter commented.  
  
"Ah. Point. Now, why would the two come to Spain to witness Seras (or possibly you, Anderson,) being attacked by undead knights?"  
  
"They won't come to see that. They'll come for you," I answered.  
  
"Anderson, this is one of the strangest plans you've thought of. And I've seen you impale yourself to kill a vampire standing behind you." Maxwell stared up at the stained-glass window set high in the wall. "But. . . is it worse than waiting for them to come kill me?"  
  
"If Alucard wins, he'll be weakened, and we'll come down on him with everything we have. If the Knights Templar win, we already know it's possible to trap them again. Perhaps we can kill them with modern-day weapons." I leaned forward in my chair. "This is Integra's strategy, using the night against the night. But whichever force wins, we'll cleanse the earth of the victor."  
  
"If Alucard attacks the abandoned church, it will be infinitely better than letting him desecrate this hallowed ground." Maxwell stood. "Pack your equipment. I'll go spread the word among my men."  
  
Walter and I exchanged glances, a single thought passing between us:  
  
Now we have to sell this to Miss Victoria. 


	6. A Gathering of Strength

++++++ Hellsing isn't mine, although I remain captivated by its utter insanity.  
  
"Where the heck did the Knights Templar come from, and how do they fit into Hellsing?" I hear you ask, or I would if you were to leave any reviews. They're a Spanish legend, they strike me as fitting in well with the overall Hellsing model, and I really needed something that could conceivably slow Alucard down. The only canon things I could think of were the chipped vampire girls in league with the Valentines, and those wouldn't last two seconds in a no-holds-barred battle with Alucard.  
  
Also, Integra being a vampire isn't canon, so I guess I'm taking my fangirl license and running with it. Go ahead, smack me. I'm tough. I can take it.  
  
(sniffle)  
  
++++++  
  
Integra was beginning to understand the enormity of her new burden.  
  
She swirled the pen point idly over the sheaf of notebook paper that lay in front of her. She hadn't thought she would lose Hellsing so crushingly. She had never dreamed that she might lose so much.  
  
However, it was almost impossible for a vampire to get government funding to slay all vampires except for two other vampires. And she hadn't realized that once she was legally declared dead, her property would pass on to her next of kin.  
  
That had shaken her, but not bothered her too deeply; nobody would care to take over her property as long as she were in it.  
  
Then said property had burned to the ground.  
  
Integra blinked fiercely. Her world, her responsibility, her shelter, and it was destroyed completely.  
  
However, she still had Alucard. Integra had influence now, not control, and if he began to care less what she thought, she would lose what she had left. She listened without emotion when he planned, thanked him without more than token appreciation, and strove to remind him how many challenges he had left to meet. She sought challenges for him, to keep his mind with her.  
  
It was like she were still alive.  
  
She'd been practicing for immortality since they had met, she realized with a faint smile. She dreaded the day that Alucard might decide to limit himself again to the danger of the seals. Or perhaps he had gained herself and Seras so that he could watch them enter human control, and gain amusement by following the course of their unlives.  
  
Integra missed Walter badly. She had never fully realized what a prop Walter had been to her while she battled the vampire's arguments and comments. She had never realized how much she must have meant to him, not until she sat by him in a darkened vehicle, listening to him breathe, the exhaustion of his heart and the racing of his thoughts, terrified that a heart attack would take him away from her.  
  
She had hurt him very badly. Integra wondered if he were recovering.  
  
*~*  
  
I was surrounded by natural beauty. The mountains stretched out of the dry terrain, interrupting washes of stubborn, stunted trees. Heat still radiated from the rock face nearest me, although the sunset had faded. The mountains were old and broken; vast faces of rock towered towards the sky.  
  
"So, then," I said carefully. "I'm assuming there's a reason for this?"  
  
Only the wind answered me. I craned my neck to try to see above me. "Come on, Walter. We were walking high above the Spanish church, admiring the arid evening scenery and discussing weaponry. You were behind me a minute ago. Then I saw stars, and now I'm hanging over a cliff with wires around my ankles and wrists. Do you think I think you went off to go have a cup of tea?"  
  
"Oh, no need for that. I have a thermos." I heard the sound of liquid pouring into a cup, barely audible over the sifting and murmuring of the wind. A spoon clinked. "I trust you understand your situation by now?"  
  
"I am hanging very uncomfortably over the edge of a sharp drop, with the threat of being left to die where nobody will hear me. There is the option of tearing the wires through my flesh and freeing myself, but if I do that, I will fall and become non-regenerating pulp somewhere at the base of the cliff. Never expected it of you, didn't think you were going to sacrifice your duty for a pair of vampires, etcetera." The wind was swaying me alarmingly over what seemed an endless drop. "Just out of curiosity, are you going straight after Maxwell, or are you going to leave him for Alucard and cut down our soldiers?  
  
"Actually, you're here because you kept not answering my questions," Walter informed me. "I have no intention of attacking Maxwell."  
  
"Ah," I stared into the abyss below me, "what kind of questions would these be? And this is why you wanted to know if I've ever been rock-climbing, isn't it?"  
  
"Yes, although I could drop rocks on you if you caught the cliff face."  
  
My temper gave a warning twinge as it started to fray. "Now that I'm done admiring the elegant simplicity of your snare, would you please move on to the questions part so I can get out of it?"  
  
"I still lack the means to tell whether or not you're answering truthfully- ah. Miss Victoria."  
  
"Sorry I'm late. Is he there? Let me see." A pebble bounced off the back of my head. I growled. "Sorry! Er, I'm here to tell whether you're lying or not."  
  
"So ask me something." My patience was getting seriously strained. I craned my neck. I could make out two blurry figures, or maybe oddly colored rocks. "And my glasses had better be up there."  
  
"I have them." Walter's voice was calm and soothing. "Father Anderson, did you plan to execute Seras Victoria if we successfully killed Alucard?"  
  
He'd been trying to ask me that in a number of different ways, but I'd always dodged it. It had seemed safe then. I was beginning to see how important the little vampire was to the old man. That was dangerous. "Yes."  
  
"Did you plan to execute me?" That one hadn't been asked before.  
  
"No."  
  
"Thank God for small favors. Are you aware that Seras is a Protestant Knight, while I formerly held the title?"  
  
"No," I answered, "but you're making a mistake if you think she remains one after death. It's even the same mistake you made before."  
  
"Anderson, right now she's an ally. After Victoria is finished helping us, you will let her depart in peace, and plan to kill her later."  
  
"Since I'm agreeing under duress, I fail to see how you get peace of mind from this."  
  
"The only consequence to not agreeing with us is that we'll refuse to work with you. We'll let you up when I'm out of questions." Walter paused. "Seras, did you have anything you wanted to ask?"  
  
"Well, if you aren't going to kill Walter, what did you have planned?"  
  
"Nothing. He's human. I don't care what he does. And before you ask, no, Maxwell doesn't care about him either."  
  
"Then my most serious concerns have been answered." Walter pulled me up. I glanced between him and the vampire; I needed them both for this. I unlooped coils of wire from my wrists. Walter carefully coiled his wires again.  
  
"The church and its territory is almost ready," Seras informed us. "I can't stand to go in the building. And Master and Integra are coming, but they're still far off."  
  
"Maxwell and the soldiers will remain inside during the attack. We will be outside with you." Walter shot me a look. "We'll all cooperate with each other, and refrain from murder attempts when we succeed."  
  
"I'm not going to dangle anyone off cliffs, but I need an answer." I folded my arms. We might as well finish thrashing things out. "Seras, are you really going to fight against your master?"  
  
"I am a Protestant Knight, loyal to what Hellsing was," Seras replied. "Our soldiers were content to disband to serve other members of the Round Table. But I'm still in this for Walter's sake." She glanced down at the church. "Killing Maxwell has never been one of Hellsing's priorities. Integra and Alucard aren't Hellsing anymore."  
  
"Thank you," Walter said.  
  
Seras smiled. "You're welcome."  
  
"And since we're all going to be outside," I directed my next thoughts at Walter, "that leaves Seras and I against Alucard. You'll be left once again against Integra. Are you going to be able to kill her?"  
  
"I can do it," Walter said simply. I crossed the knife-edged plateau to look at the church deep in the valley below. I didn't want to patronize him, but I knew how deep his loyalty to Integra had run.  
  
On the other hand, if he were confident enough to string me up and dangle me over ledges because I wouldn't answer a few questions, he probably had recovered from his grief.  
  
"If we're all finished, I'm going to go make sure the chimney is full of silver concertina wire." I started away. I felt a lingering reluctance to turn my back away, but I tried to ignore it. Right now, we needed each other. 


	7. The Countdown

+++++  
  
Hellsing belongs to humans whose identities I do not share.  
  
I'm stuck with the Templars. I've been thinking and thinking and thinking, and short of the Flaming Sword from the Garden of Eden, I'm not coming up with many weapons that would hurt Alucard.  
  
Okay, time for me to shut up and entertain you.  
  
+++++  
  
I could feel it. He was out there.  
  
All of us sensed it, and we all reacted differently. Walter withdrew into himself, carefully going through his daily routines. He seemed almost obsessed, as though by acting normal he could change the reality of the world around him. Seras seemed to be daydreaming; she moved from meticulous checking of her equipment to staring into space. Maxwell wrote pages and pages in his latest work, which he hadn't confided to me. The soldiers argued, or wrote home, or cleaned their weapons and polished their boots and set their things in order.  
  
I kept touring the grounds. I would cut around the graveyard, pass the old well that provided some of our washing water, over a ridge to the back of the church, around the back of the building and over a second rise, and end up again where our vehicles were parked.  
  
At sunup, after Seras had slipped away to wherever she hid during the day, I took a map of the region and pinned it to the church's stone wall. I carried a short sword with me. About twenty paces from the shed, I swung around, whipping the blade through the air. I walked back to the map and pulled my sword free. A clean line was cut through the map to the north of the church. I walked the same distance and turned, throwing the sword again. Walter, crossing the yard, paused to watch. I retrieved my blade and started away. I whirled, sending the sword on its course once more. I could see from where I stood that it was in a different place. "Hunh."  
  
"Is that an unusually evil wall?" he asked, when I pulled the blade free again.  
  
I grinned as I walked. "I'm finding out where they are." The sword cleaved the stones behind the map again.  
  
Walter approached when I had the map down and was sheathing my sword. I pointed at the intersection of the first two cuts. "Alucard is sleeping right there." I moved my finger to the next cross. "And this is where we are. I must have detected the Knights Templar."  
  
"What does that mean?" Walter had picked up on my tone.  
  
"I think it means we woke them up." I sighed. "I can find the most powerful sources of active evil in the area. I got Alucard's location with two hits, then the Templar's. I hope they're stronger when they're freed, or he and Integra will clean up too quickly."  
  
"What else?" Walter asked sharply, picking up on my concern.  
  
"I'm half blind," I admitted. "Right on top of one site of evil, with another locus approaching, I can't detect anything else. I'm blind to Seras right now. Even when she's awake I keep losing her." I turned, looking at the flat scrub around us. "I wish we'd had more time to search around. The presence of the Knights Templar may have drawn lesser evils."  
  
Walter frowned. "There's no prey here. And we've blessed the church again and consecrated its grounds."  
  
"Nobody goes in the graveyard," I decided. "We'll place it off-limits now. I'll scatter some host around it."  
  
He seemed to be about to comment, but decided to let me overreact if I wanted. "If you know where Alucard is, why don't we go take him?"  
  
"He's an experienced traveller. He undoubtedly took himself, his coffin, and Integra deep underground." I looked wistfully up at the sun. "Did you think to bring a backhoe? I didn't."  
  
"I'd like to go look." Walter was still staring at the map.  
  
"Fine. I'll go warn Maxwell."  
  
Maxwell reacted to my interruption like a war dog awakened from a sound sleep. Having heard that I was a paranoid idiot who needed constant management, I went back to find Walter. He was already in the car, studying the map.  
  
"You're coming?" he asked, looking up.  
  
"Obviously," I said, climbing in the car.  
  
He started the engine. "I thought I heard Maxwell order you to clean some more brush out of the well."  
  
"He did. I'm working."  
  
Walter chuckled and put the car in gear.  
  
We found the spot on the map, between two roads. There was a smooth hollow of dying grass. That was all.  
  
"He's under there?"  
  
"Deep." We stood over it, unwilling to move quite yet, not wanting to accept after we'd come this far that there was nothing we could do. Walter moved into the brush and found a long, straight stick. He looked at me. "May I have a sword?"  
  
Curious, I unsheathed a blade and passed it over. He used it to cut a short length of wire, tied sword and stick into a cross, and planted it in the center of the dying grass. We both spoke a short prayer over it, of hope for our mission and a prayer for the night's safety. Then we climbed into the car and headed back to the church.  
  
Maxwell was overseeing the opening of the first part of the barriers between the Knights Templar and freedom. He was watching the men tear down the rear wall of the church. Boards splintered as they were pried loose. Light spilled through the old wall to strike a recessed door in the back of the church. "Anderson, what do you make of this?"  
  
I walked forward, looking over the shoulder of one of the soldiers. A dusty broadsword hung point-down on the door. Its crosspiece was unusually wide. The suggestion of a human figure was raised over the metal, its arms along the crosspiece, its toes pointing towards the ground. "Don't move the sword. It acts as the bar on the door of their prison."  
  
"How were they trapped?" Walter asked.  
  
"People died to shut them in there. A priest on the outside, along with one of the virgins they had been hunting." Maxwell answered him. It was one of the few times he'd spoken directly to Walter. "We are doing a very unholy thing in undoing their work."  
  
"We want to destroy the Knights Templar," I argued. Maxwell gave a slight nod, acknowledging the point.  
  
"How did the virgin die?" Walter asked.  
  
"How else would the priests get them all in the trap?" I shrugged.  
  
"They're that powerful?" Walter looked at me suspiciously. "You can't drive them?"  
  
"The priests then couldn't harm them," I said. "Avert them, yes, but only temporarily."  
  
"They were men of lesser faith, unprepared to fight evil," Maxwell interceded. "The capture of the Knights Templar was something of a textbook case for myself and my peers. They only leaned on their faiths when building this trap. The best of them died foolishly long before."  
  
"What are those symbols around the door?" Walter squinted through his monocle as more boards were handed away.  
  
I moved up by the soldiers again to look. "Arabic. I can read modern-day, but old Arabic has many variants. I see the word for 'God' and a common way to say 'danger.'"  
  
"That's clear enough," said Maxwell as the soldiers began to expand the hole in the wall. "We don't want them out all at once, or they'll tear apart our church defenses from the inside."  
  
Something jingled inside the door. A layer of dust jumped off the sword. Maxwell and I jumped. Walter had spools of wire between his hands in an eyeblink.  
  
"I think this many living people should get out of the sanctuary," I suggested. The soldiers were already moving, putting the last of the boards out of the way and retrieving their tools. I looked at Maxwell. "Aren't they inert during the day?"  
  
"They're supposed to be," he agreed. "They've been in there without feeding for centuries."  
  
"That sounded like a horse's bridle," Walter contributed. "You didn't mention how they fed?"  
  
"First they drink the blood, then they eat the body," I said. "Or parts of it."  
  
Walter stopped halfway to the door. "So they're related to vampires."  
  
"Vampires and the Knights are both undead creatures cursed by God. They have to sustain themselves on the essence of the living. Of course they're similar. But the Knights Templar cannot spread their numbers as vampires can." Maxwell turned away, following the men. "Anderson, guard, please."  
  
"Of course." I stood between the pews, watching the door. When he was out of sight, I said, "They can only feed on the living. To them, Seras is about as edible as a rock. Her blood would have no good effect on them."  
  
Walter watched me, weighing my words, trying to judge for himself if I were telling the truth. He closed the door behind him.  
  
I rested in a pew, listening, watching the door, waiting for sundown. 


	8. The Battle Begun

++++++  
  
Hellsing remains in the control of Kouta Hirano.  
  
On the other hand, I can play in it. Wheee! I love fight scenes.  
  
Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed! But I'm not telling how it ends yet. ;)  
  
++++++  
  
It was no more than the smallest of inconveniences, like a bit of dental floss strung in a doorway. Alucard reached up through his portal, grabbed the blessed object, and threw it aside. He and Integra rose from the ground.  
  
"Walter," said Integra, looking at the object. Alucard followed her gaze. He reached down and picked up the cross.  
  
"A challenge," he said. "It's too bad the Angel of Death didn't decide to oppose me before. He may have stood a chance then."  
  
Integra was staring southward. "Is that Seras?"  
  
"Yes. And if you think the police girl will mount an effective resistance against you and me. . ." Alucard snorted, his face alight with wicked humor. "I'll almost be sorry when this is over."  
  
Integra smirked at him. "My enemies will remain."  
  
"I have not forgotten your betrayer." Alucard showed off his fangs. "I owe him."  
  
Integra didn't like to think of what had happened if she hadn't been betrayed. Would she still have freed her pet? She turned away. "They're waiting."  
  
"I can't disappoint my fans." Alucard's shape twisted, then spilled apart in a cloud of wings. Integra still heard his voice. "Shall we?"  
  
*~*  
  
They were coming, and coming fast.  
  
Maxwell and the soldiers had retreated far behind the church. Seras and I were standing before the closed doorway of the Knights Templar's pit. My mouth was dry. Now that the knights were awakened by nightfall, I could sense them, and the force of their evil almost blinded me to Alucard's distant presence. I couldn't stand to think of what might happen if Alucard decided to watch me die and then moved on to kill Maxwell. Him and the knights freed on the earth-  
  
Don't think about it. I swallowed, staring at the sword hanging over the door. That was the lock of the spell that trapped the Knights. I wasn't quite sure how to open it. Lifting the sword and opening the door should do it, or, perhaps, breaking the door down with the sword.  
  
"Ready?" Seras asked.  
  
I was going to tell her to wait until they were a bit closer, but the two vampires were moving too fast for me to want to risk it. I took a deep breath, reached out, and brushed the sword with my fingertips, preparing to take it.  
  
My vision went blind for a moment as the power behind the door became overwhelming. The door exploded open. The stained-glass windows nearest us blew outwards in a colorful spray. Seras shrieked, grabbing my shoulders and flinging me away. I landed with an "oof!" on the far side of the pews.  
  
The Knights Templar poured through the opening.  
  
Two crashed through the pews towards me. It took me a moment to see they were mounted. Their horses were creatures of shadowy muscle. Glints of old bone peeked between sinews as they moved. The Knights were skeletal, dried figures covered in old metal and cracking leather. Only stretches of skin remained on them. I couldn't see muscles.  
  
I took in the scene as I drew swords. I hadn't expected horses. Why hadn't Maxwell said anything about the horses?  
  
I saw a dismounted Knight as Seras threw one of them from horseback. Another threw himself from his horse, crashing down beside me. I swung, cutting his skull in half like a grapefruit, scattering dried hair.  
  
His hand was already close to my shoulder, and closed before I could duck away. Clawed fingers cut through my coat, shirt, and flesh like paper. The knight's head flew back together, his jaws gaping as he brought his head near mine. The second knight was dismounting behind me. I cut through the knight's skull again to buy a few more seconds. I heard laughter that was entirely in my head as I cut through the knight's sternum, hoping to find his heart vulnerable. My blade displaced a gout of dust and nothing more.  
  
Seras smashed into the knight like a hurricane into an island. Her fist fragmented his skull again. I cut the knight's hand apart with another slice, pulling bony fingers from my shoulder and dropping them as I sprinted for the door. The last one jerked itself from my hand. I heard Seras scream. I glanced back to see her surrounded by knights as the ones she had attacked reconstituted themselves.  
  
Good.  
  
I threw myself out into the night. I heard hoofbeats as a few knights began a pursuit. They tore through the border of our defensive spells and followed me into open air. I danced away, flinging swords. I saw flurried movements in the sky, but I was a bit busy. I dodged to one side, trying to outmaneuver the horses. An ancient sword swept through the air after me. I ducked, parried another blade, and sprinted to the side, throwing another few blades.  
  
Someone appeared near me, building himself out of small flitting bits. Alucard stared at the knights with undisguised fascination. One of my swords fell away from a knight as skeletal joints gave. Another tore its way through battered armor, giving in to the demands of gravity.  
  
I snarled at Alucard, cutting the leg from one undead horse as it closed the distance between us. It crashed to the earth. Its rider dismounted. Slow without its steed, it approached. The other two horses began circling me.  
  
Seras came crashing through a window, her arms and shoulders streaming blood, one hand missing, her eyes wild. The remaining knights came out through the wreckage of the front of the church. A horse leaped through the window after her, landing awkwardly. It seemed weakened. Seras hissed. I counted horses. Three after me, four after her. There were only seven? I noted the stutter of gunfire as Integra met our soldiers somewhere behind the church. I had no time for more than that.  
  
Bones and bodies splintered around me as Alucard began firing. Two horses crashed over backwards with screams that seemed to tear at my mind. Their riders pattered apart in explosions of bone. As an afterthought, Alucard shot me once in the back. The knights, already healing, ignored him in favor of going after me. He moved to stand over me, laughing. Two blades sank through his torso.  
  
I had to slow them all down. I stood as the vampire reeled, throwing the Bible I'd taken from the church. It spiralled apart, splitting in a shuffle of pages to spread itself among the knights. Seras seemed to anticipate being trapped, but I honored the agreement I'd made with Walter. Pages fanned away from her to trap the nearest knight.  
  
Alucard seemed hardly bothered as loops of sacred text snared him. He grabbed a horse's neck. He caught its nose with the other hand and pushed. The horse's knight fell on him, attacking with claws and teeth. He ignored it for long enough to tear the horse's head free. Its body seemed to twist apart. Shadowy muscles fragmented into small flickers. Bones fell in a dry patter over the ground. The knight shuddered. Some of its power seemed to desert it with the passing of its mount. Alucard shoved one hand through its ribcage, seeking its heart, and made the same discovery I had.  
  
I was too distracted. Teeth sank into my shoulder as the nearest knight pulled at his trap of pages, straining far enough to reach me. It jerked its head away, jaws working. I heard a scream I barely recognised as mine. The knight threw his head back and swallowed, gaining enough strength to tear free.  
  
What had we let loose? I cut apart his head again, slamming my sword point- down through his ribcage and leaving it there. When his head spun back up from the ground and gathered itself over his body, he seemed weakened. A fresh patch of bone glinted, and I realized he lacked the strength to fully gather himself. I cut again. A wash of dust and broken metal hit me from the side. Alucard had successfully destroyed his opponent.  
  
My pride awoke. I could not let him succeed where I was failing. I dodged the slowed knight and went after the nearest steed. The other knight was climbing on his horse. Alucard coolly shot him from its back and fired repeatedly into his horse. It charged him, swinging heavy hoofs. I realized that the screaming I heard was Seras.  
  
The hurt in her voice acted on me powerfully. I slammed one sword into the horse's skull and ran. I was halfway across the yard before I remembered that she was a damned creature. Saving her was pointless. When her soul passed on, demons would attack her instead of these creatures. Was I losing my mind, thinking I should help her?  
  
However, I was close enough for two of the knights attacking her to swing their focus to me. I parried a heavy swing. The rider's forceful attack cost me my footing. He dismounted, intending to feed. I remained down, waiting, swords in hand.  
  
As soon as he was off his horse, I threw three blades. They split the horse's ornamental headpiece and scattered its skull. I started laughing as I saw the steed's shadowy muscles dissipate. Now I only had to deal with the knight.  
  
Seras tore free of the knights and ran for the church. The three followed her, ignoring me for what they deemed a more dangerous enemy. My opponent remained.  
  
Why couldn't anything lose its skills when it passed on? I wondered, parrying its first sweeping cut. Its broadsword swung again with tireless strength. I ducked, throwing a short blade into its shoulder. Ghouls kept their learned weapons skills. Why couldn't I ever fight something that just died?  
  
With a quick slice, I cut the creature's leather gauntlet open. I shoved my fingers in the gap between the bones of its forearm, prying the bones apart, leaving a discarded Bible page between its bones to prevent it from healing. It dropped its useless hand from the broadsword and attacked one- handed. Its power seemed undiminished. I forced its blade up. It swung its empty hand up at my eyes. I ducked. It threw itself at me. I rolled with it, desperately holding it off. By the time I forced the damned creature away, I had lost half my ear and some of my scalp.  
  
Furious, I shattered its skull and sliced straight down its spine. It jerked twice, trying to find the strength to mend its bones. I stomped down. Its pelvis splintered. I stood over it for a moment. I had to be sure that its power was too spread for it to heal. I spared a glance to be sure that Alucard was busy. He was enjoying his fight. He held one knight off with his bare hands, sparing a shot now and then to keep the other knight down. One horse was nowhere to be seen.  
  
It would do. I sprinted into the church to find Seras, hands smoking, holding off two knights with the broadsword from the door. One knight was mounted. One's horse limped, three-legged. The third knight was a mangled pile of bones and armor. Seras' eyes were hidden in shadow, but she was radiating an unnerving aura. My newfound concern for her evaporated.  
  
Alucard shot me in the back again and stepped over me into the chapel. When I could move, he was finishing off the wounded horse. I realized there was a knight standing over me. Cursing, I rolled over and stabbed at it. Its armor slowed my blade long enough for it to stab me in the chest. Uninterested in killing me quickly, it pulled its blade out. It dropped to its knees and hauled me up, biting at my injury. My cross necklace struck its hand. Its grip weakened for just long enough. I nailed its neck to the pew behind it with another sword and rolled away, trying not to see how much blood I was leaving behind.  
  
Alucard fired several shots into the knight's carcass. It jerked. I glanced at him, measuring strength. He was indeed injured, and his cuts were closing more slowly than usual. I doubted he had fed before the fight. His way was to make his eventual victory as sweet as possible. He was waiting for my blood. Alucard fired twice more. The knight's body surrendered to dusty death.  
  
"How did I overloook that one?" Alucard asked, watching as the knight's armor settled.  
  
"He was mine," I protested. He looked at me. A horse's hoof slammed into the back of his skull. Grinning, I got to my feet again.  
  
"Anderson!" I heard Maxwell's voice, desperately raised. Seras looked at me. I ran for the back of the church. She growled and attacked the nearest knight with renewed vigor.  
  
I burst through the door into the priest's chambers. Walter was leaning against the wall, carefully working a jammed bullet free from his gun. Integra was breaking metal floss between her teeth, trying to free herself from wires wrapped around her body. Maxwell was firing bullet after bullet from one of the soldier's weapons. Somehow, he was managing to miss her half the time. I smirked, running at Integra. There was no way she could stop me or free herself in time. I was in full bloodlust, I still had my weapons, I was too close for her to survive, and Alucard caught up and put my head into the wall. Damn.  
  
"Seras," I reminded him, spitting splinters.  
  
"She'll figure it out." Alucard's gaze was almost benevolent. There was an unpleasant sound as Maxwell realized he was there and put a bullet into the side of his head. I lunged, swinging, and then backed away, trying to draw Alucard from Maxwell. He wordlessly accepted the challenge. I backed into the ruined chapel. Our gazes were locked, expressions identical. He knew that Integra was in danger, but he had to leave her to her own fight.  
  
We were long overdue for this duel. 


	9. Phoenix Nest

++++++  
  
Hellsing still isn't mine.  
  
Okay, ready? Good.  
  
++++++  
  
I retreated into the sanctuary. Seras must have realized that the horses had to die before the knights were vulnerable. She only faced two now. She was using her gun and her bare hands to fight them.  
  
I heard Walter shout something, and Seras went through the window with no hesitation. Alucard aimed his gun and dispatched one knight. Not wanting him to claim any more victories than I could help, I threw two blades and disposed of the other. I turned back. Alucard was waiting, a faint smile on his face.  
  
*~*  
  
Walter ticked through options in his mind. He was slower now than he had been when he was young. Thankfully, he doubted Integra was used to her new speed by now. He could guess that her first priority was going to be to kill Maxwell before his shots hurt her too badly.  
  
"Seras! Your help, please?" Walter needed better odds than this. Integra snapped the last of his latest batch of wires and stood. She smoothly aimed at Maxwell. No fool, he was already ducking behind his desk.  
  
Trying to ignore the sick feeling that it gave him to attack a Hellsing, Walter fired a shot into the back of Integra's neck, aiming for the vulnerable small vertebra. He didn't think he could kill her quickly-she was of Alucard's blood, after all. He could slow her.  
  
Integra was getting up before he'd hauled Maxwell halfway across the office. Seras came through the door, gun in hand. "Get him to safety."  
  
"But you-"  
  
"I'll be able to fight better with him gone," he said. "Get him out of here."  
  
"I'll be back." Seras whisked Maxwell from the office, keeping her body between the vulnerable priest and the other vampire.  
  
"It is not pleasant to see you like this," Integra said. Her voice was oddly brittle. Perhaps the wires had hurt her more than she realized, Walter thought.  
  
"Nor you." Walter was undecided. Should he aim for the head, or the heart? He thought that one of Maxwell's shots had hit her cranium, with little effect. Heart. He aimed.  
  
Integra's shot burned across his sleeve as she aimed her gun just a fraction to the side before firing. At the same time, Walter's shot thudded into her left shoulder. She went back a half-step to take the impact. "I missed intentionally. Did you?"  
  
Walter coldly took aim again. This time, the gun was aimed higher. Part of his brain again tried to pull his aim off, but this time he expected it and locked his muscles in place. The recoil was made worse by his tension. The vampire's expression turned surprised as the bullet hit home in her skull. Grunting, Walter lowered the gun, grabbed Integra's ankle, and dragged her out of the office. The shelter for the Vatican cars wasn't far off when she twisted free. "Walter!"  
  
Was that fear in her voice? He doubted it, even though her recovery time was slowing. Or perhaps it was the same fear that was threatening to rule him: fear of loss. She knew what this was doing to him. A tremor went through him, the only disruption to his mantle of calm.  
  
He raised the gun again, sighted, fired. He anticipated his reflexive jerk that would have put his shot to one side, and suppressed it with iron control. His arm was starting to throb from the effort. He drew the recovering vampire into the shelter of the automobiles. Spare munitions were stacked behind one jeep, while fuel was piled a careful distance. A quick loop of his wires halved a small fuel drum. Gasoline splattered on them both as Walter rolled it over the hood of the jeep. The fluid soaked into the munitions packaging. Walter reached into his pocket, coming up with Integra's silver cigar lighter.  
  
Awareness returned to Integra's eyes.  
  
Walter lowered the flame to the trail of fluid.  
  
Integra moved fast. The resolve he'd seen earlier on her face was gone. The fury that burned in her eyes had faded. She seemed suddenly young, free of the burden of duty, and for a moment he saw what loss had driven her decision. He shot once more, intending to keep her motionless long enough for the fire to begin its work. She staggered, but still reached him.  
  
And then he was airborne. His sleeve was burning. Beneath it, his skin was aflame. Walter hit the ground rolling, smothering the fires. He stood, looking back as he heard the fire build. He didn't hear anything, but he knew Integra would face death in silence.  
  
Instead, Alucard's scream told him all he needed to know. Walter started running towards the church, ignoring the sudden clutching in his chest.  
  
*~*  
  
At first, it was the standard eye-for-an-eye engagement I'd learned to expect with Alucard. The devilfish harpoon, survivor of one encounter with him, managed to pin him down long enough for me to significantly reduce the mass on him. Now we were playing a glorified game of keep-away, with me trying to keep him from re-absorbing his lost blood. It was made more difficult by the fact that one bullet would delay me for too long.  
  
He faltered suddenly. I put three blades in him, then backed away hastily as his face changed. And then he shrieked in pure anger. I winced, ears ringing. He knocked me to the floor and ran. He moved to the window almost faster than I could follow. Halfway there, he stopped. For a moment he was completely still.  
  
He swung around. I momentarily rethought the question of whether or not he was soulless. I'd seen that expression before in the faces of people who'd just lost home and family, in the exhaustion of a soldier fresh from the battlefield, in the stupor of someone who'd just heard that they were in the last stages of a fatal disease.  
  
My surprise vanished in the force of his attack.  
  
He didn't seem to care that I held a weapon level, didn't seem to care that I had recovered fully by that time. He accepted two swords through his torso. I realized what would happen when he pulled his elbow back, hand at his waist. I dodged before his hand flashed out. His other hand caught me on the side of the head. He pulled his hand back again.  
  
I felt the impact; the sound was worse. He'd aimed above my heart, and hadn't carried the blow through to my spine. I passed almost immediately into a state of shock. Alucard waited a moment, judging whether or not I would recover, and then pulled his hand back out of my ribcage. My vision went black.  
  
Alucard was still standing in the same position when I was healed enough for my brain to register things again. I knew by his expression that I wouldn't be allowed to heal fully before the next injury. He had recovered his gun. It dangled loosely in his hand. I mentally took stock of how many blades I had left. But this wasn't a battle anymore. It was an execution.  
  
I saw Walter limp into the doorway, far behind us. I had to move. I jerked sideways, spitting blood. Alucard stepped back slightly, giving me space, either in curiosity or sheer sadism. It didn't matter which, so long as I was able to start away.  
  
I was almost at the back of the sanctuary when I made the mistake of moving a bit too fast. Deciding I'd recovered enough, Alucard put a bullet into my spine. I waited, again, hoping Walter had the sense to stay out of it. He must have seen the purpose in my movements, because he didn't attack then.  
  
"Broadsword," I said aloud when my vision was a lesser gray again. Alucard didn't comment. I twisted around, looking at the vampire again, half- panicked that he might have read my mind. He was watching me with an almost emotionless calm. Walter had vanished from the doorway. I hoped he'd thought of what I was thinking.  
  
We couldn't kill Alucard.  
  
So. . .  
  
I got to the stairs of the Knight's crypt. A bullet caught me in the side as I started down them, sending me falling in. Alucard pushed the door closed, watched it swing back towards him. I blacked out again. When I was able to see again, Alucard was standing above me putting in a new clip into his gun.  
  
"Too gradual," he said. "Let's find the limits of your regenerative ability."  
  
I saw Walter for a moment. The door slammed shut, and we were in darkness. I heard the sound of a vampire slamming into a door, a growl, the sound of a gunshot, the sound of muffled blows.  
  
"Forget it," I said. "This place was used to contain all the Knights."  
  
"I'll find a way to break out." Footsteps passed by me in the dark. I checked my pockets, coming up with a small flashlight. My other light was broken. I flicked the light on.  
  
The crypt interior was covered in silver strands of holy symbols and runes of binding. They formed a spiderweb around us. The door was almost a shell from the inside, clawed away by centuries of knights tearing at the barrier, but the symbols remained supported by each other in an intricate net. Alucard fired a bullet. It bounced off a powerful line and ricocheted off the wall.  
  
*~*  
  
Walter stared at the silver broadsword. Anderson had mentioned it, asking for him to move. He wished there was a way to get the vampire in there alone, but he already knew it would have been impossible.  
  
Picking up a shattered piece of pew, he went back out to the fire. The fuel had burned itself out, and he had to be sure that nothing remained of Sir Integra.  
  
He felt something outside the door. He froze, fearing for a moment that Alucard had risen from the earth. "Seras?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Good." He turned. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Maxwell shot at me." Seras sighed. "He's with the rest of his soldiers now. I lost them outside the cemetery. They're hunting for me."  
  
"I took my car over that rise earlier this evening, while I was thinking of ways of destroying Integra. If you would care to leave with me?"  
  
"Are you going to have to kill me?" She fell easily in step with him.  
  
"I hope not. Anderson would say undoubtedly. . . but you're still yourself."  
  
"So was Integra."  
  
Walter tried not to think of the little girl he had glimpsed again. "No. She was ready to kill humans. You aren't."  
  
"Walter. . . your heartbeat. . ."  
  
"A murmur? Yes. The doctors say it's nothing serious, yet." Walter glanced at her. "Made worse recently by stress. I think it will get better."  
  
"What happened to Anderson? Is he dead?"  
  
Walter suppressed a shudder. "By now, I'd hope so."  
  
*~*  
  
We were silent. There had been quiet for the past few hours. I had turned the flashlight off to conserve the battery.  
  
"Praying?" Alucard's sneer broke the silence.  
  
"Yes," I said. "Mourning?"  
  
"I can't expect a human to understand, but we vampires never truly lose each other." Alucard sounded somehow tired. I heard him stand. "Well, priest, you decide. Should I use bullets, or bare hands?"  
  
"Sorry?"  
  
"Do you honestly think I'm waiting in here for sunrise, so that you can kill me while I sleep?"  
  
"Your seals no longer diminish you," I snapped. "I don't know that you'll be asleep in the day."  
  
"Ah, but in here my power is contained." I flicked on the flashlight, shining it as his face. Alucard's expression was closer to how he'd usually looked, although he still maintained a cast of grief. "And you still have your weapons. So. Should I use my guns? I think I will. I think I can finish you by hand when I'm out of ammunition."  
  
"Arrogant spawn of the devil." I stood.  
  
"How does that door open?" He crossed his guns over his chest, a layer of protection in case I threw a sword at his heart.  
  
"Someone opens it from the outside. And only Walter knows we're here. You're trapped forever, monster."  
  
"As are you. Which means I have to kill you tonight, or be killed." Alucard smiled for the first time. "This ends as it should: you and me, fighting."  
  
I threw a short sword at the smug expression on his face, and charged.  
  
But I understood.  
  
This felt right. 


End file.
